As Nick Novak stood in the Washington Redskins' locker room yesterday and began talking about the most important field goal of his life, his thoughts drifted home to West Lafayette, Ind., where a long-time family friend and neighbor, Annie Arth, is battling cancer, first breast cancer and now ovarian. He knew she was probably too ill to be watching, but as he tried to talk about her, his eyes filled with tears and he was overcome with emotion, too choked up to continue.